Methods: A cross sectional study of HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitude designed covering 526 students in four medical universities (Kufa, Babylon, Karbala, and Qadissiya) in March 2013. Data collection was done by a questionnaire containing knowledge and attitude questions (11 questions for each part) in addition to some demographic questions.
Results: 526 questionnaires (319 from medical students and 207 from dental students) were received. The knowledge of medical students were about 54.8% (n=190) intermediate (were defined as score 51-75), 27.1% (n=94) good (were defined as score 76-100) and dentistry students about 68.2% (n=150) intermediate, 10.5% (n=20) good. Estimated level of attitude of medical students were 14.7% (n=51) intermediate and dentistry students 21.4% (n=47) intermediate. None of them was put in “good” attitude category. Knowledge and attitude are not affected by age, gender, and marital status, but it was statically significant difference between medical and dental students.
Conclusions: Overall knowledge and especially attitude are not in good situation among medical and dental students, which potentially threatens healthcare workers and patients considering HIV and other blood-borne infections. It is also important for Medical Learning Programmers to put greater emphasis on controlling blood-borne infections, especially HIV.